Fractals

The definition of fractals is quite extensive, so I will reduce it to a short interpretation that they represent images, created from repetitive patterns, and their representation is calculated by applying certain mathematical equations. Since I make an Excel greeting card almost every year and create a “recipe for drawing a Christmas tree” I will not deviate from tradition. We will “draw” the Christmas tree with the help of one simple fractal.

Content generator

A few years ago, I attended a panel discussion on whether artificial intelligence will be able to replace humans when it comes to creative writing. Some participants claimed yes, others no, and my position is that it is not so much who will write and how, but who will such materials. Gloomy vision, isn’t it? In this text, I will show you how to fill in the pre-prepared text with your own values ​​and thus create fake news using the SUBSTITUTE function.

What is your horoscope sign?

Here’s a fun topic! At the same time, this is a good opportunity to practice working with the LOOKUP function. Although, these days, people are talking much more about the XLOOKUP function I don’t see why, in this situation, we wouldn’t use its “older cousin”. Task: determine the zodiac sign of the person whose birthday is on the given date. This is achieved by searching the table that contains the range of dates that determine zodiac signs.

Custom data validation

So far, you could find a lot of texts on the web site “Excel Kitchenette” about data validation. Most of them were about lists, since this functionality is often used, and further the choice of data type, setting the text length, number range or date were mentioned … When activating the Data Validation option, there are also custom rules, where it is possible to enter a formula based on which the validation is being performed.

Simpler analysis

In the “recipe” Simple sales analysis, you could learn how to get to the value that is in the intersection of the row and column of the sales report. On that occasion, we used the INDEX and MATCH functions. The new XLOOKUP function allows this analysis to be performed in a much simpler way, by combining two instances of this function. Let’s see how it’s done!